Jewish holiday in MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where I work, teachers do not give HW/schedule tests on high holy days for a variety of faiths.

I remember that
but in the end it did not work out at all. The students were too lazy to schedule her presentation early so in the end all other times were booked and she still had to come in and do the presentation for her project.
But it is not the job of the teacher to know everybodys religion when there are so many. The responsibility was on the student and that was too much

[Anonymous]

I'm Jewish, new to Montgomery County, and have learned so much on this thread! Here below is a brief explanation of the Good Friday/High Holy Day connection. URL at the bottom. Happy Halloween to all who observe!
.....
Judith M. Koenick, a former public school teacher, filed suit against the Board of Education of Montgomery County, Maryland, challenging the constitutionality of a Maryland statute providing for public school holidays on the Friday before Easter through the Monday following. According to Koenick, this statute's enforcement amounted to an establishment of religion because it singled out a Christian holy day for special treatment in a manner not accorded to the holy days of other religions.

A district court rejected Koenick's arguments and ruled in favor of the Board of Education, finding that the Good Friday school holidays did not constitute an establishment of religion. Koenick appealed to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a majority opinion written by Judge Ervin and joined by Judge Motz and Senior Circuit Judge Butzner, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the judgment of the district court and affirmed its decision, ruling that there was no impermissible establishment of religion in creating a public holiday at the same time as the Christian holy day of Good Friday.

The most important part of the Court's reasoning was the Board's argument that these schools closings served the secular purpose of saving money and maintaining the school's effectiveness in the face of a high rate of absenteeism on those days - the same reasons that the Board closed schools for the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. http://atheism.about.com/library/decisions/holydays/bldec_KoenickFelton.htm

[Anonymous]

Thanks to you newcomer for being more informed than the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to you newcomer for being more informed than the rest of us.

Whew! Agree with that sentiment!!

[Anonymous]

Logistics argument does not hold water. Jews know it deep inside. It is about equal treatment with respect to Catholics, which has long become a sick obsession.

[Anonymous]

Yes, a sick obsession. I get it. Jews do not deserve to be treated equally (or any group other than catholics/christians)-right?

I'm going to lobby for school to be open on Christmas and any child who does not attend will get a mark on their permanent record and will NOT be allowed to make up tests and homework. NOW we are equal.

[Anonymous]

Hey newcomer -- that's not how we do things here. We don't use actual facts to make points. We just rely on the information we receive from the voices in our heads. And then we get snippy.

[Anonymous]

The two previous posts simply prove that the logistics argument is an excuse (a good one I might to admit).

Some (most?) Jews in the area see the world as a competition between their religion and Catholicism. The metric of this competition is airtime of their culture.

This is my perception, which could be wrong of course. However enraged reaction seen above just makes me more certain that there is indeed an obsession as pointed out before (the term sick is unecessary, since catholics have obsessions too).

[Anonymous]

I have just promised myself not to read or reply to this thread again. I hope that all will join me so it will disappear. It is not going anywhere and defintely not accomplishing anything.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry to start this again. I'm new in MoCo and this board as well. I just finished reading the thread. It's nice to know about lots of history related to this topic. I'm convinced that there are a large amount of Jewish teachers in MoCo, does anybody know an exact number (percentage)? I know from other posts that Jew accounts for about 8% of MoCo population pool, which should transfer to about 8% Jewish students among all MoCo students. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

It feels like 80 percent, not 8. As an agnostic, I do not care about fights over religious holidays. Moreover, Jews bring a positive mindset to the community.

[Anonymous]

Sigh..refer back to 18:39. I am out of this one too

[Anonymous]

There is no way you can get a percentage of teachers--there is nowhere that teachers would report (nor should they be asked to) their religious preferences. MCPS has over 20,000 employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey newcomer -- that's not how we do things here. We don't use actual facts to make points. We just rely on the information we receive from the voices in our heads. And then we get snippy.

LOL! And so true.

[Anonymous]

Why is this such an issue?

I'm Catholic. My daughter attends a Catholic school. My son, however, attends a Jewish preschool. Their schedules are ALWAYS off. So logistically it can be a nightmare.

But b/c both schools are gems in my eyes, we deal with scheduling problems.

Let people enjoy their holidays.